Stone Stomper vs Rock tamers

I just use a strip of rubber at the back of the car, works well but won’t be up to the standard your after I’m afraid. What I want to know is how do people using these devices access there fridges at the back of the car during the day? Don’t know about anyone else but we are in and out of the back doors several time a day.

Cheers Lyndon

Ps. there was a post on this only a few days ago

You are right it was done to death about two weeks ago so a rather long thread is still there.

I had a rubber stoneguard ahead of the rear bumper and it caused my rear tyres to run at 65deg instead of the 45 when I took it off.

The Rocktamers sit on the shank of the towbar so may let more air through but a $245 arent a cheap option. We stayed on tarseal and only got 1 stone mark in 50,000k. Lucky I guess but thats how it was.
Depends on where you are going.
THe number of vehicles we saw with stoneguards would have been a small minority.

Richard

Regerdless of what you get, please do not use one solid piece of rubber, as a mudflap. There has to be an air gap in the middle for air to move thru from the diff, for cooling purposed.
Don't want to boil the diff.

Nothing will stop everything

I have seen many different types of mudflaps, but the ones that impress me the most are the rock tamer type ones. I like the way they simply bolt on.

Stone stopmers look the goods, but will not stop all rocks, nothing will. However I do like the way they redirect the stones under the van.

If you are so concerned about under the van, you could put extra flaps along under the front of the van, at the piont were the drawbar meets the Van propper.

Cheers
Bucky

Read thead 80139 its only about 6 down the page if u have prefs set to response time.

And you still must cover the back windscreen of your vehicle with a carton or The beer carton alerts people to which state you are from and works a treat! It is an extremely cheap and highly effective option.

After spending a decade out bush in extreme heat, shaley tracks and black soil that sticks like the proverbial when wet, I removed my home made rear bumper rubber stone guard due to all the obvious problems people have mentioned. I replaced it with the hairy type that you see on some truck wheel wells. The nylon type hairs are about 30cm longand go right across the rear of my troppie. Air travels through it, mud catches but is more prone to fall off much sooner than solid rubber and stones don't bounce back. I have had the diesel exhaust modified with a 90degree tail piece that now points out the side. I also extended my towbar so it could easily slip onto it and not affect my hd/van wiring connections.
I have not seen another on the road like it.???But they must be out there?? I have used it for the last 20 months in most weather and terrain conditions and have found no wear and no prob's. I remove it when I am not towing and make sure it is locked/anchored to the van at the camp site.
It is called Towtector. The supplier is Northcoast (I think) in Brisbane.

Hope this is useful to someone.

Reg

Hello Richard,
We have the Rock Tamers fitted to a 2007 Prado towing an Innovan (read lots of vulnerable fiberglass surfaces). We did a trip to the NSW high country and traveled about 500k of stony tracks in December last year. The Tamers stopped all large rocks, but did let some small (read up to 5mm rocks through) which caused small nick marks in the van. We did have an exhaust deflector fitted which eliminates any potential burning or melting of the flap. I am advised (as other responders in this thread have alluded to) that it is difficult to eliminate all rocks. In general we are quite pleased with the performance of the Rock Tamers.
Hope this helps
Paul

We have a Stone Stomper and are very happy with it. I am currently at Tibooburra and have been through lots of mud and rock to get here, and we have barely any mud on the front of the van and no stone damage at all. The location of the trapeze does not restrict access to the rear door, but at least on my Disco 2, the bar to which the trapeze attaches does get in the way when doing up the safety chains and plugging in the van to the vehicle. However, that is just a minor inconvenience. I am very happy with my purchase. The other couple travelling with us have a Rock Tamer style system (a copy) and also have had no noticable damage to their van or vehicle.
Hope this helps.

Thanks to all for the very helpful responses.

I have decided on the stompers but have to move my anderson plug as it will be in the way of the bar attached to the hitch

Richard

Even though I don't have one ....I would agree on the stone stomper idea...


I have a KK and even though it has one of the best stone shields on the front of the camper....and even after running nearly full width flaps behind the 4x4, it still got stone chips ( even along the sides of the camper.....and I've got custom made flaps to try and stop it ).....

No matter what mud flaps you have ....stones will find a way to bounce under/around them...but the stone stomper idea will stop stones coming up from the road.....but won't stop the underneath of the camper/ van etc from getting a blasting....but you can't have everything I suppose !!

Hi as usual I have ran in to problems with this.

I was going to get the stomper and may still do but am finding because the van has some mudflaps hanging off its stone guard it is proving difficult where to mount the stomper.

My options are to remove the mudflaps - not sure what extra benefit they give but reckon they would stop stones going underneath - any comments?

Attach the stomper brackets to the van stone guard - this will I think be a bit difficult as I don't reckon it is solid enough - and the drag of the stomper would put a fair bit of stress on it - not sure though

Some other arrangement which I am looking in to.

The stomper sure looks the goods and I have read a lot of good reports about it so I am trying to get this to work.

RIchard

I have the StoneStomper, and have to say it has certainly done everything expected of it.

We have no stone damage to the van, a-frame, gas bottles or back of the car, and have travelled on many stony tracks and roads.

It is easy enough to stand on the mesh when you want to get to the back of the car, or step over the a-frame.

It is not hard to attach or remove when you want to, and I will sometimes just unhhook from the car and leave attached to the van, shoving the mesh under the a-frame to clear the jockey wheel, if we are only stopping one night and want to use the car. Otherwise, if we don't want to use the car but need to lift the van off the towball, then I unhook the mesh from the van, move the car forward and shove the mesh under the car. When I remove it completely, I roll the mesh up and stuff it in a green shopping bag.

I leave the bar and canvas flap attached to the Hayman Reece receiver post and either leave the whole thing on the car - most of the time (it does not obscure the number plate) - or slip the receiver out of the towbar and put it in the tunnel boot or sling it under the caravan.

I have also ensured that the under-van pipes, fittings and wires are protected - as you would have to anyway whether you had a stone restriction device or not.

If the van has mud flaps under the a-frame, I would remove them since the Stonestomper mesh would give a full width protection anyway rather than just where the flaps are.

I have been very happy with the Stonestomper. Would imagine there to be almost zero effect on fuel consumption or cooling of rear wheels and diff, and it has been exactly what I wanted in stone protection and peace of mind. I can turn onto a gravel road and not have to even consider the aspect of stone damage to either the van or the car. I have not seen evidence that any stones have got through.

I would thoroughly recommend the Stonestomper to anyone. I believe Kimberly Kampers can be awkward to fit to, but would expect that the stone protection would still be superior.

Ken

Just a bit of an update.

I got the Stone Stomper and have installed it so it attaches to the existing stone guard. A couple of minor problems with installing the brackets but worked out OK in the end - I hope:)

It will get its first outing very soon.

I found that Christian from Stone Stompers to be very helpful and responsive as I did not give him a lot of notice.

By not removing the mud flaps there is a bit of a gap between the stomper and the van.

If an issue I could put additional protection between the flaps and the van but hopefully that is not required.

RIchard